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Updated: May 20, 2025
"You you bought Zip's claim?" he asked incredulously. "Ha'f of it. Me an' Zip's partners. You got anything to say?" Bill's words rapped out with biting force, and Sandy, knowing the man, waited, solemn-eyed. Just for one moment astonishment held his audience breathless. Then some one sniggered, and it became the cue for an instantaneous and general guffaw of derision.
And Minky nodded his head. He also smiled slyly upon those who stood about him. "Ther' sure is elegant humor to most things in this yer life," he said dryly. "Which 'minds me Wild Bill bo't ha'f o' that claim o' Zip's 'fore he set out fer Spawn City." And at his words somehow a curious thoughtfulness fell upon his hearers. Nor was there any responsive smile among them.
Somehow Zip's luck, in spite of the excessive figures which extravagant minds had estimated it at, only took second place with him. He was thinking of the man who had journeyed to Spawn City. He was worrying about him, his one and only friend. He had understood something of that self-imposed task which the gambler had undertaken, though its full significance had never quite been his.
"Say, you can quit huggin' them fixin's," he cried. "I ain't come pryin' around a leddy's wardrobe. You ken jest set down with paper an' ink an' things, an' write down how best Zip's kids can be raised. I'll git right back for it in ha'f-an-hour." Nor did he wait for any reply. It was taken for granted that his demands would be promptly acceded to, and he vanished as abruptly as he came.
While Zip was looking, one little girl took out of her basket some delicious looking fried chicken, and as she piled the nicely browned pieces on a plate, she put the breasts on top to make it look more tempting. It made Zip's mouth water so for a taste that he decided to keep well hidden and see if they would not leave the table for a moment so he might jump out and steal a piece.
He just turned and fled, screaming, "A porcupine! A porcupine! Look out or he will fill you full of quills!" This alarm made the girls jump up and run from their table of goodies in a panic. The lad who had thrown the water thought the other boy was merely fooling when he peered into the bushes and said he saw a white porcupine and fled. Now was Zip's chance.
And it isn't because she is not coaxed to go, either, for nearly every night the neighbors' cats come and try to persuade her to go with them to somebody's house or barn." Just then the doctor came back with a nice warm hot-water bag, which he put close against Zip's stomach, and then he wrapped him up snugly in the shawl once again. "There, little fellow, you will be all right in the morning.
Then a laugh sounded behind him and, turning quickly, he saw Miss Belinda Simpkin's pet Poll-parrot swinging on the limb of a tree, laughing at him. This was too much for Zip's dignity. To have a Poll-parrot make a fool of him! So he ran to the tree where she sat and barked furiously up at her. But to make Zip still more angry, Polly kept on whistling and laughing at him.
He just liked to chase them once in a while. "Are you hurt, Laddie?" asked Russ. "No. Are you?" "Nope. Say! but didn't Zip run fast, though?" "Terrible fast. Faster than when he chased the rabbit." There were a few red spots on Zip's nose where the cat had scratched him. The dog licked them away with his tongue, and looked rather silly. It wasn't very often a cat stayed to fight him.
This they did, so when the Judge arrived home and went to show the constable the window where the burglar got in, he found Zip sitting demurely beside it. "Hello, Zip! What are you doing here?" he asked. You may think it strange the Judge knew Zip's name, but not so in a little village.
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